Poll: Obama Approval Rating Falls to All-Time Low

President Barack Obama's popularity declined to an all-time low, with only 41 percent approving of his performance and 54 percent disapproving, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll.

The results contrast with a Bloomberg poll that showed Obama's popularity rebounding, with 48 percent approving of the president's performance, better than the 42 percent at the end of last year. The Bloomberg poll also found 42 percent of independents backing him, an improvement over the 35 percent in December.

The Journal/NBC poll portrays Americans as pessimistic about the economy, disenchanted with their lawmakers, and unhappy with the president's signature healthcare law, which 49 percent thought was a bad idea. Still, 55 percent of Democrats said Obamacare would not be the determining factor in deciding how to vote.

How these sentiments will impact the midterm elections is hard to know, though analysts say it will be a factor whether Democrats retain their Senate majority. While a narrow majority of Americans prefer that Republicans control Congress, 45 percent held negative views about the GOP. At the same time, just 34 percent said their own member of Congress deserved to be re-elected.

Obama's 54 percent disapproval rating is unchanged from his December results when Obamacare rollout glitches dominated the news. The poll showed his largest disapproval rating among Democrats, which now stands at 20 percent. Americans said that they would be disinclined to support candidates who had been endorsed by the president or were closely associated with his administration.

On the economy, 65 percent were pessimistic with 57 percent feeling the country remained in recession.

On specific issues, 58 percent said they'd vote for a candidate who wanted to raise the U.S. minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Though most wanted to cut federal spending and reduce the annual deficit, they did not want to touch Social Security and Medicare.

In foreign policy, Americans are disinclined to be the world's police. Republicans, Democrats, and independents tended to coalesce against the idea that the United States needed to reassert itself on the world stage.

The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted for the Journal/NBC by a team of Republican and Democratic pollsters by telephone, including cellphones, March 5-9 and has a margin of error of 3.1 points.

President Barack Obama's popularity declined to an all-time low, with only 41 percent approving of his performance and 54 percent disapproving, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll, The Journal reported.